Medellin, Colombia

I was ready to move on, the heat in Cartagena was just stifling. Rodney was evaluating his options, he was considering going to Santa Maria, maybe. The bus to Medellin left at 11.

The walk to the bus stop was about 9 blocks. I was staggered by the huge number of buses queued and driving in the street, none clearly marked. I had read that taking a bus alone was a bit of an adventure. After the third bus passed me I just inquired to the guy who hangs out the door of the bus, "Terminal Cento?" "Si." I got on the bus. It was clearly marked as a 1300 peso ride. After almost about and hour of winding our way through various city streets I started to get a little apprehensive. I didn't know that Cartagena was so large and began to be concerned that we were actually not going to make it to a terminal.

When I arrived at the terminal I walked by a guy standing near the front gate who spoke a great deal of Spanish to me that I did not understand. I dismissed him with "No Comprende. Mi Espanol muy poco. Necissito bus Medellin." This evoked a great deal more Spanish and I thought that I was hearing that I was at the wrong terminal for intercity transport. God damn it. He gestured that I should follow him. We walked a couple of hundred meters and he looked at a bus that had no obvious markings and patted it on the side and said, "Medellin Directo ocho horas." I had no idea that there was a faster bus. He attempted to grab my bags and put them in the storage in the back of the bus, but I wasn't letting them out of my sight. He saw my apprehension and just carried them on the bus. Now I took up two seats, but there were plenty of empty seats, so what the hell. After I boarded he showed me 110000 on his cell phone. I gave him the requested number of pesos and he left the bus. He didn't scurry off, but nobody else was giving him any money. He brought on a guy wearing a company shirt and pointed at me. I asked "Necessito ticket" to which he replied "Tranquillo". What the hell? The bus company guy seemed to think that I was set, but was I really? I inquired with the driver, "Hasta Medellin Directo?" Si.

Then a company guy came on and starting charging people and giving them tickets. I didn't have enough pesos to buy a ticket if I just got ripped off, but I left on the bus, the only passenger without a ticket. We stopped frequently and people got on selling juices and all manner of foods, getting off shortly thereafter, presumably boarding a bus in the opposite direction in a travelling market. I had read about the hyper effective air conditioning on Colombian buses but there was no air on this bus. Every time we stopped it was stifling. After many hours we came to another bus stop and everybody got off. I inquired and was informed that I had to change buses, I thought. Direct my ass. The whole cycle repeated itself. After about 9 hours on the bus we got to another terminal I bought a couple of juices but after 9 hours on the bus I need to urinate and there was no bathroom available. I was told there was one one the bus. Another person took my bags and carried them to my seat, reclined my seat, lowered my foot rest gave me a thumbs up and walked off the bus, no pregnant pause waiting for a tip. After another hour we stopped at a restaurant, but by this time I was too tired and just wanted to rest in my seat. Finally Medellin was visible through the window, stretching far up the hill in a sea of lights. I saw no taxis and inquired; they were on the lower level. After descending the stair case there was a see of Chevy cars the size of Mini Coopers, all yellow at least 4 score and I was the only person at the taxistop. I showed the location of my destination to the taxi coordinator and inquired "Queno questo?" and received the response "Doce Mill", 12,000 pesos. I had a 10,000 note in my wallet. I got in the taxi, it had a meter, I had obviously left Panama. We whizzed down clean well maintained streets at 100 km/hr, the driver couldn't find the place with the map I handed him, but with three quick inquiries after getting off the highway we found ourselves at my intended destination. Everybody was very helpful.

Casa Kiwi only had a bed in the dorm and no lockers available. I walked to the ATM but it had a windows boot message that it could not locate "hal.dll". Shit out of luck. The town was hopping, beautiful women were everywhere. The town was in full swing but nobody was obnoxious or loud or rude. The weather was perfect but started to drizzle as I was writing this post and has already stopped. This is going to be good.